pro360

September 7, 2024
  • :
  • :

BCNEXXT will showcase the future of playout operations at IBC 2024 with a new version of cloud-native solution, Vipe, at stand 3.B23. The company is introducing Vipe RT, which delivers the same impressive cost efficiency to live sports and events that BCNEXXT has already deployed in hundreds of entertainment channels around the world.

Offering unparalleled flexibility, market-leading reliability, full customization, and remote operations, Vipe disrupts traditional playout operation by consolidating Linear, Fast, VoD, and Streaming silos onto a common platform with a single point of technical and financial management. Specifically designed for sports and live events, Vipe RT is a new, separate engine that deploys real-time processing upstream from Vipe’s playout engine. As an optional upgrade, Vipe RT can be added to an existing Premium Vipe playout channel to handle live sports and events on a daily basis.

“Vipe RT provides previously unseen levels of automation and unmatched reliability to sports and live events,” states Graham Sharp, CEO of BCNEXXT, USA. “A new Live Operator panel provides real-time control over functionality, such as real-time switching, graphics selection, emergency slates, and audio mapping. All with the added security of a low-latency Web RTC confidence monitor.”

The goal is to achieve maximum resource and personnel efficiency, cut capital expenses, and provide agility and flexibility to create (and shut down) services for broadcasters, sports and live events. The latest Vipe release has increased the number of Quality Control (QC) checks to 80+ while the enhanced, easy-to-use GUI’s automates repetitive tasks and reduces on-screen operator errors. A new playbook, “Transform Your Media Business”, highlights BCNEXXT’s benchmark model for content playout and distribution, outlining how companies can take the first step towards more streamlined media operations.

Vipe takes full advantage of cloud dynamics to scale resources to content’s processing needs. Vipe differentiates content’s complexity to assign resources accordingly, provisioning and releasing resources for the duration of complex live events. Dynamic resource management keeps costs to an absolute minimum by increasing resources only for the duration of any live content. This reduces operational costs by as much as an impressive 60% for file-based channels and potentially more for live sports and news, especially when running occasional live events. Since QC is done ahead of time, Vipe drives 99.9999% reliability, in a lights-out-operation mode for thematic channels.

Vipe drastically simplifies media supply chains and reduces operator-to-channel ratio. Organizations can quickly deploy new channels without upfront costs or jeopardizing on-air playout, using a convenient pay-as-you-go model.

At IBC 2024, BCNEXXT will showcase new capabilities to this transformative distribution platform including:

  • Break Containers to quickly adapt to changing break playout requirements. This matches the dynamic course of complex games without fixed break times, such as baseball or cricket.

  • Vipe’s new Swimlane View lets a single operator manage nested channel variants. This feature targets multichannel playout where channels follow the same break pattern, often around a single sports event, but have their own regional content and ads during breaks.

  • For live events and late arriving file-based content, a low-latency output now lets operators add live subtitling to the regular playout pipeline.

  • CPU-only rendering and playout provides even more deployment flexibility.

Schedules and manifests are used to create the versions required for all distribution channels, which are stored in the compressed TS format. Vipe can be deployed across public and private cloud platforms as well as on-premises. With highly optimized compute usage, Vipe’s lower-energy consumption leads to more sustainable operations.